title: Life events and their impact on bladder control in children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between incidence and nature of life events within families and age of bladder control acquisition in healthy children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-five parents of 36, 6-year-old children were interviewed using the Coddington life events questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The children had experienced a total of 185 life events (mean 5, median 4.5, range 1-12) before the time of dryness. The most common were related to childcare/occupation of parent (51%), illness/injury/death (24%), family composition (16%) and living conditions (9%). There was a strong correlation between the number of life events and the age of dryness; the more life events and the older the child was when experiencing them, the later the child became dry. The only single event that was significantly associated with a later age of dryness was the birth of a sister or brother. In general, children had reacted positively (39%) or neutrally, but to 30% of events there was a negative reaction. There was a correlation between the reaction of the child and adaptation to the life event, and if the child had difficulty adapting to an event, that child became day dry at a later age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although life events are a natural part of daily life, this study supports the conclusion that a large number of events and events to which the child has difficulty adapting can be of importance for the age of acquisition of bladder control.
authors.affiliation: The Pediatric Uro-Nephrologic Centre, The Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden. ullabritt.jansson@vgregion.se
authors.forename: Ulla-Britt
authors.initials: UB
authors.lastname: Jansson
authors.forename: Ulla
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Sillén
authors.forename: Anna-Lena
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hellström